If You Have an Ash Tree

If you have an ash tree on your property, your two options are to treat it or remove it. Any ash tree not treated with insecticide will succumb to EAB in the near future. EAB has been detected only a couple miles from the Fitchburg city limits, so Forestry staff recommend all property owners make a decision about how to manage their ash trees.Treat Your Tree or Remove It?
Consider the following five factors when deciding whether to treat an ash tree with EAB insecticide or to remove it:

An ash tree alreadyin poor health for reasons other than EAB should be removed. For any insecticide to be effective, an ash tree must be healthy enough to transport it throughout its entire trunk, throughout all of its limbs and branches, and into all of its leaves. This is true for insecticides applied to the soil, injected into the trunk, and sprayed around the base of the trunk or onto the leaf canopy. An ash tree in poor health cannot adequately distribute any insecticide to provide the systemic protection needed against EAB on two fronts (1) the larvae, which hatch from eggs laid by adult beetles on branch and trunk bark and burrow inward to feed mostly on phloem cells, which conduct food manufactured by the leaves and (2) the adult beetles, which feed on ash leaves during the summer and then lay eggs.

If you have a medium-size or large ash tree that was incorrectly or never pruned, removing it may be the best option. Contacting a certified arborist to assess the form and structural integrity of the crown could save you money, time, and frustration in the long run. A small ash tree can be correctively pruned for relatively little cost. But correctively pruning a medium-size or large ash to improve its crown form and structural integrity to minimize susceptibility to ice-storm and windstorm damage could be expensive. For a medium-size or large ash tree, the combined costs of corrective pruning and preemptive EAB insecticide treatment may significantly exceed the cost of preemptively removing it before EAB finds it.

If you detect an infestation early enough, insecticide treatments applied correctly can save an ash tree. But research has found that insecticides, even those available only to professionals, cannot save an ash with an advanced infestation. If you think your ash is infested with EAB, contact a certified arborist for treatment advice.

If you have a healthy medium to large-sized ash tree, it could be worth treating if you take into account the aesthetic and financial benefits it provides. A healthy medium to large-sized ash that has been properly pruned and is planted in a good location boosts your property value. In part because of its fall color, a white ash will generally boost property value more so than will a green ash of similar size. Also take into account savings in summer cooling costs, especially if your ash is located on the southwest side of your house or business. During summer dry spells, the shade a large ash provides can help to keep your lawn healthy and reduce watering costs.

To ensure protection against EAB, an insecticide must be applied for several years. Nobody knows yet exactly how long that could be for our area. Soil-applied insecticides available to homeowners must be applied once a year. Trunk-injection insecticides available to certified arborists and professional pesticide applicators can be applied every two to three years, depending on the insecticide.

If you have a fairly young, small ash tree on your property, long-term insecticide treatment likely will cost more than removing it and replanting another type of tree. As tree size increases, the difference shrinks between long-term treatment costs and removal costs. Also, increases in property value and other financial benefits that accrue with tree size should be considered.

Cost Estimate
For a rough estimate of how treatment and removal costs stack up against one another, the Urban Tree Alliance, a nonprofit organization in Madison, has an easy to use EAB Management Cost Calculator. You only need to provide the calculator with the trunk circumference of your tree (wrap a string evenly around its trunk at 4.5 feet from ground level and then measure that length in inches with a ruler or tape measure).

Additional Guidance

Regardless of whether you choose to treat or remove your ash tree, do not wait for it to become infested with EAB. As noted before, a healthy ash is more amenable to insecticide treatment than an infested one. Removing an infested, dying or dead ash, especially a large one close to a house or commercial building, is very costly. Ash wood is extremely brittle when dead and subject to shattering on impact with the ground.

Removing Your Ash Tree

Disposing of Wood

Any professional contractor you hire to remove your ash is responsible for disposing of it in accordance with state EAB quarantine regulations. If you use it for firewood, please obey the county EAB regulations in effect, which are conveniently and clearly explained on the following map: Firewood Movement Restrictions for Wisconsin Counties.

Other Ways to Use the Wood

The majority of trees removed from private and public property in urban and suburban areas end up getting chipped for mulch or disposal. However, when a tree must come down, there can be a bright future for the log. There are local sawmills and plenty of custom woodworkers and hobbiests that may be interested. The Wood Cycle, located in Oregon, WI runs a sawmill, drying kiln and custom woodworking business that makes cabinetry and furniture using local woods, and also supplies kiln dried urban hardwoods to the Habitat Restore of Dane County. The Wood Cycle can even keep track of your wood and put it back in your home as a finished product.

If you have a tree that needs to come down and want the wood to be put to a good use (other than firewood or woodchips), see if your tree is a good candidate (log criteria). If it is, contact The Wood Cycle and work with a local certified arborist.

Replanting

To begin to restore the environmental, financial and aesthetic benefits your ash tree was once providing and help maintain our community forest canopy, plant a new tree that is suitable for the location and climate. There are many alternatives to ash.

Private Trees and City Regulations

The City’s Tree and Shrubbery Ordinance does include regulations for a tree on private property in the event it becomes a public nuisance due to an insect infestation such as EAB. The ordinance can require a homeowner, business owner, or other property owner to remove an ash that shows signs of an EAB infestation if the tree constitutes a nuisance such that it

Interferes with the use of public areas;

Is injurious to public improvements; or

May endanger the life, health, safety, or welfare of persons or property, public or private.

One or more of these criteria can easily pertain to an EAB-infested ash tree that has dying or dead large branches and limbs and is located close to public or private property.